A history of Belgium from the Roman invasion to the present day . tice of everyday life and into closecontact with the humble and the poor. It wasspecially successful among the women, andabsorbed a great many of the surplus femalepopulation. The Beguines did not pronounceeternal vows and could, if they liked, return tothe world. They led a very active life, settledin small houses, forming a large square plantedwith trees, around a chapel where they heldtheir services. All the time not devoted to prayerwas given to some manual work, teaching orvisiting the poor. From Nivelles, the movementsprea
A history of Belgium from the Roman invasion to the present day . tice of everyday life and into closecontact with the humble and the poor. It wasspecially successful among the women, andabsorbed a great many of the surplus femalepopulation. The Beguines did not pronounceeternal vows and could, if they liked, return tothe world. They led a very active life, settledin small houses, forming a large square plantedwith trees, around a chapel where they heldtheir services. All the time not devoted to prayerwas given to some manual work, teaching orvisiting the poor. From Nivelles, the movementspread to Ghent, Bruges, Lille, Ypres, Oudenarde,Damme, Courtrai, Alost, Dixmude, etc., and evento Northern France and Western Germany. Theaccomplished type of the Beguine is MariedOignies, who, after a few months of marriedlife, separated from her husband, spent manyyears among the lepers, and finally settled, with afew companions, in the little convent of Oignies,near Namur. Such was the spirit which inspired the buildersof the Belgian churches. Certainly the most. ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE gi typical and perhaps the most beautiful is NotreDame of Toumai, with its romanesque nave,built in the eleventh century, its early Gothicchoir (thirteenth century) and its later Gothicporch (fourteenth century). It illustrates ad-mirably the succession of styles used in thecountry during the Middle Ages and the series ofinfluences to which these styles were subjectedfrom the East and from the South. Most of theromanesque churches of the tenth and eleventhcenturies were built either by German architectsor by their Belgian pupils. Though the bestexamples of the period are now found either atTournai (cathedral and St. Quentin), at Soignies(St. Vincent) and at Nivelles (Ste Gertrude), thecentre of the school was at Liege, where St. Denis,St. Jacques, St. Barthelemy and especially SteCroix still show some traces of this early main features of these buildings, in theiroriginal state, are, bes
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1921
